TelCoa thanks U.S. Representatives Jim Himes, Rosa DeLauro, and Elizabeth Esty for introducing the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act, H.R. 4085, 113th Congress.
We strongly support this crucial legislation. The bill would finally eliminate the telecommuter tax, a steep penalty often resulting in double taxation of income that interstate telecommuters earn at home. The telecommuter tax unfairly burdens telecommuters and their employers and limits telework adoption. Congress must make the Multi-State Worker Tax Fairness Act law!
TelCoa and other advocates are working to secure the bill’s enactment, but we need your help!
>>>Read More...

Guest Columnist

4 Great Examples of Telework’s Impact
by: Brie Weiler Reynolds
As champions of telecommuting and flexible work options for all, we certainly don’t have to tell TelCoa readers about the benefits of telework--we all know and love them. But as organizations like ours work to spread awareness of, and support for, flexible ways of working, it’s really important to remember the individuals for whom we work--the millions of professionals whose lives would be positively impacted by more access to telework and flexible jobs.
At 1 Million for Work Flexibility, we hear daily from supporters about why they support the expansion of flexible work options for all. Here are four great examples of why work flexibility, including telework, is vitally important to individuals, to companies, and to society.
>>>Read the entire blog at...

Hot Topics & Links

"Working from home not for everyone, but it can still be a 'win-win' for many workers and employers" is an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer featuring TelCoa President Chuck Wilsker and Advisory Board member Diane Stegmeier.
For the complete article,
>click-here...
-------------------------

How to make telework really work

We talk about teleworking a lot, but it seems there’s a big difference between discussing it and actually putting a system in place that will work for feds.

According to the most recent federal employee survey by the Office of Personnel Management, only 10 percent of feds telework at least one day a week, and 12 percent said that they aren’t even interested in telework.

But the survey found that 23 percent of feds say they aren’t allowed to telework, and 7 percent said they don’t telework because technical issues prevent them from doing so.

So, we decided to speak with a couple of different telework experts in order to sort out some issues.

Evan Offstein is an associate professor of business at Frostburg State University and Jason Morwick is a manager at Cisco Systems.

Offstein says, in order to get the process going, one has to be able to answer the big question: Why?

“You have to make a business case. To say that telework is there to make employees happy and satisfied — that’s only 20 percent of the issue. The real case, I think, is that a leader has to clearly specify how telework can lead to a competitive advantage. Often, we find that that just isn’t done.”

Security, of course, can be another huge hurdle. Though it varies depending upon the organization, there are examples of organizations that deal with very sensitive information which have successful teleworking programs.

Both contend that, because of this, security should not really be used as an ultimate excuse for not allowing any employees to telecommute.

“In my experience, the biggest hurdles are not usually around technology, but around leadership, change management and dealing with an organizational culture. For example, what we call the ‘out of sight, out of mind syndrome’ — a perception of inequality or unfairness between office workers and teleworkers. Or, perhaps it’s trust issues,” Morwick says.

This is why a lot of the onus on making telework work must fall on the leader.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘overcommunicate’, but a lot of stuff that we take for granted, like the watercooler talk, leaders have to force this issue — through email, picking up the phone, message boards, chat rooms, that type of stuff. Also, we found that the leaders that make telework work would often draft team charters that would really specify the nature [of] why this teleworking team is being put together,” Offstein explains.

He also says that successful telecommuting programs are very results-oriented that have leaders who are focused on the end game, not the process itself.

With the federal government, however, it can often be hard to simply focus on results.

“We’re working against hundreds of years of management by walking around. . . . This is a change in mindset. For telework to work, leaders have to change their mindset to focus on the results and to provide the support systems, technology and otherwise, to make it so that people can get the results. Management by walking around — or leading by walking around — I think those days are done,” Offstein says.

In their book, both authors point out that most employees are ready, willing and, more often than not, able to work from home or a remote location. Therefore, it is up to organization leaders to modernize, think outside of the box and not worry about having so much face-to-face time.

“At the bare bones minimum, you need suprisingly little to actually telework. You simply need an Internet connection. . . . You don’t even need a phone nowadays. . . . So, it really depends, again, on the organization. For example, if you want your teleworkers to be a bit more mobile, then a basic laptop with wireless capability and a cellphone should do. If you want your employees to have access to information after hours, or you want access to your employees at all hours, then, of course, you move to a PDA. If you want to increase their collaboration and productivity, then there’s file sharing. . . . So, it really just depends on the organization and what they expect their employees to do,” Morwick explains.

But what about those numbers from OPM’s survey? About 12 percent of people who took it said they have no interest in working from home or another location. Are these people correct? Should everyone be forced to participate in a teleworking program, if offered?

Both authors say no — and add that those who really want to telework might not be the best candidates, either.

“Some introverts . . . may be the ones that offer to telework . . . but those are the people, because communication is so important, those aren’t the people that you want to telework. You want some extroverted people that are really strong at communication. . . . Communication is the key to making telework work, both between the leader and the employee,” Offstein says.

Recreating the watercooler is also a good idea. Morwick explains that teleworkers should feel as though they have a place to go, despite lacking a cube.

“People feel more connected when they can physically meet someplace, whether it’s the water cooler or just around a cubicle environment. You have to almost, in some cases, recreate that feeling in the virtual environment.”

There are, of course, jobs that just aren’t suited for telework, which both Offstein and Morwick readily acknowledge.

They both advise, too, that an office should probably learn to crawl before trying to walk, so to speak. Offstein says even small moves can lead to big results.

“We suggest . . . maybe doing a pilot program first for [it] to get some traction, and then it can be expanded. So, even if it is one day a week now, if we’re going to win the telework war, you’ve got to begin somewhere.”

Making Telework Work:

Leadership is the key for successful work today and tomorrow!
January 15, 2010
Forward planning all has to do with a single word: Leadership. The ability to realize the potential in people, organizations, and technologies through coordinated efforts harnessing the latent properties of these potentials, while producing scalable, as well as saleable, products and services to benefit both the public and private sectors.

In “Making Telework Work”, Evan and Jason clarified what happens to an organization in the absence of thoughtful leadership – the confused mêlées we have witnessed within both the public and private sectors, most of which could be avoided by leaders of character, who possess the foresight and willingness to evolve to the next level of excellence within their organizations.

Telework is more about policies, processes, and procedures (P³) than it is about the technologies that keep getting better, faster, cheaper, and easier to use. We can no longer afford the consequences of the failures to innovate and reformulate the workplace.

If you are looking to improve your organization’s performance, accomplish stated objectives, and provide useful services in an often chaotic world, this book and Work@Home(tm) is for you.

Well done, Evan and Jason!

J. Heacock
The Telework Coalition
Washington, D.C.

A Serious Practitioner’s Guide for Telework Programs,
October 20, 2009This review is from: Making Telework Work: Leading People and Leveraging Technology for High-Impact Results (Hardcover)

Messrs. Offstein and Morwick have served up an extremely useful guide on the nuts and bolts of planning for, implementing, and getting the most out of an organizational telework program. The most basic premise of the tome, that a good telework program if a function of strong, hands-on leadership, resonates extremely well and contradicts a basic myth that telework is all about technical issues.

They offer a multitude of excellent, real-world examples of telework programs failing and succeeding. The book also lays down concrete principles and ready-to-use precepts of success, as well as common pitfalls and traps in telework programs. The arguments and practices they espouse can be applied at firms large and small, public or private, contained with a small geographic area or spread out globally. Most of the books wasting space on the shelf at your local mega-book seller aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. But “Telework” from Offstein and Morwick will certainly be worth your money and your time.